IDENTITY AND PERSONAL INFORMATION

This section concerns the handling of personal information collected from users. It is addressed to all website operators and mobile app developers. 

1. COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
   1. What is personal information?
   2. What are metadata?
   3. What is meant by “collection of personal information”?

2. PARENTAL CONSENT
   1. What is consent?
   2. Types of consent and ways of obtaining it
   3. What is parental consent?
   4. What is “verifiable” parental consent?
   5. What is direct notice to parents?
   6. The right to revoke consent

3. PRIVACY POLICY
   1. What is a privacy policy?
   2. What information should a privacy policy include?
   3. Where should the privacy policy be posted?

4. USAGE ANALYSIS AND TRACKING DATA
   1. What is usage analysis?
   2. What are tracking data?

5. ONLINE BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING
   1. What is online behavioural advertising?
   2. Profiling

6. PERSONALIZATION AND PROFILING
   1. What do “personalization” and “profiling” mean?
   2. What aspects of profile creation require particular attention?

7. THIRD-PARTY AUTHENTICATION
   1. What is identification through a third-party website?
   2. Identification of children through third-party websites

8. COLLECTION AND USE OF DATA GENERATED IN SCHOOL SETTINGS
   1. What are some of the particularities of the educational market?
   2. What is an EdTech product?
   3. The notion of consent with regard to educational data mining

CONTESTS, SURVEYS AND NEWSLETTERS

This section addresses products that incorporate surveys and/or contests and/or communicate with users directly (newsletters, alerts, emails, etc.).

9. CONTESTS
   1. What’s a contest?
   2. Contests for children
   3. Contests that employ user-generated content
   4. Personal information and spam

10. SURVEYS
    1. Seeking user feedback through surveys
    2. How are survey data used?

11. MAILINGS AND NEWSLETTERS
    1. What’s a newsletter?
    2. Are commercial electronic messages governed by law?
    3. What’s the difference between “commercial electronic messages” and “spam”?
    4. Consent and commercial electronic messages
    5. Unsubscribe mechanisms

12. TERMS OF USE
    1. What are “terms of use”?
    2. What must terms of use include?
    3. Where should terms of use be posted?

USER-GENERATED CONTENT

This section concerns products that allow users to create and/or personalize and/or share content (in the latter case, whether they are its authors or not) with other users.

13. USER-GENERATED CONTENT (UGC)
    1. What are the characteristics of user-generated content?
    2. What risks to personal information are associated with UGC?
    3. Should a participatory youth platform be moderated?
    4. What are the implications for intellectual property on participatory media?

14. USER AND CONTENT MODERATION
    1. What is moderation? On what basis should moderation be performed?
    2. What are the possible approaches to moderation?
    3. How should users who violate the rules of good conduct be handled?
    4. Which moderation approach is best?
    5. Flagging inappropriate content/behaviour

15. DIGITAL CODE OF CONDUCT
    1. What is a digital code of conduct?
    2. What should a digital code of conduct include?
    3. How should the digital code of conduct be displayed?

ADVERTISING

This section looks at the means used in product promotion, focusing on advertising directed at children.

16. EMBEDDED ADVERTISING
    1. What is online advertising?
    2. What regulations govern advertising?
    3. Advertising aimed at children

SALES AND MONETIZATION

This section explores the various ways of monetizing a digital product, with a focus on the parent’s role as the essential intermediary in the transaction.

17. E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS
    1. Online transactions
    2. Security and protection of personal information
    3. How does data circulate during a transaction?
    4. Processing payments

18. MONETIZATION
    1. Common business models
    2. In-app purchases
    3. Accidental or unauthorized purchases
    4. The child/user and parent/payer dynamic
    5. After-sales services and technical support

SOCIAL MEDIA, ONLINE COMMUNITIES AND SECURITY

This additional section is for participatory platforms, i.e. those where users have opportunities to interact. It explores prevention, user safety and intervention strategies.

19. MAINSTREAM SOCIAL MEDIA
    1. Social media and youth platforms

20. CYBERBULLYING
    1. What is cyberbullying?
    2. How can you prevent cyberbullying on your platform?
    3. When cyberbullying is flagged, how should it be handled?

21. SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN FROM PREDATORS
    1. What is a “predator”?
    2. How can predation be prevented?
    3. How can predators be screened?
    4. What if you think you’ve identified a predator on your platform?

Main Sponsors

Funding for this digital toolkit was provided by Ontario Media Development Corporation and the Canada Media Fund. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ontario Media Development Corporation, Canada Media Fund, the Government of Ontario or the Government of Canada. The funders, the Governments of Ontario and Canada and their agencies are in no way bound by the recommendations contained in this document.

Additional funding provided by the Bell Fund, the Canadian Media Production Association, Bereskin & Parr and mbiance.